Mount Mercy’s Assistant Professor of History Edy Parsons Ph.D., will present “The Rockefeller Foundation and Medical Education in Early Twentieth-Century China,” during a special forum on Thursday, April 8 at 7:30 p.m. as part of Mount Mercy’s Race and Gender Speaker Series. The forum, which is free and open to the public, will be held in Flaherty Community Room, Basile Hall, on the Mount Mercy campus.

Edy will discuss how the Rockefeller Foundation helped bring modern western medicine to China and develop scientific and medical education in China, as Americans helped plant the seed of modern western medicine as a new knowledge within the Chinese civilization.

Parsons holds a Ph.D., from Iowa State University. She specializes in American and East Asian History. Her expertise in both western and non-western fields allows her to introduce valuable new perspectives on the world to her students. Parsons’ research areas cover both American and East Asian History. Her current research project is about U.S.-China policies and relations. Her courses include Modern East Asia, Recent China in Global Economy, Recent American History, the American Nation, and the U.S. and the Vietnam War, among others. She also has an interest in Chinese & U.S. Diplomatic history.

Mount Mercy’s Race and Gender Speaker Series provides the campus and surrounding community with the opportunity to gain a deeper understanding of global trends by providing lectures, scholarship and presentations on race, gender, minorities, and cultural differences. The series, offered every other year at Mount Mercy, offers new perspectives on issues that affect our community and world, both past and present.